Every day, smartphones are more sophisticated. But despite their success, not everybody is interested in having the most innovative and expensive phone every year.
Those millions of users who happily own useful but less advanced devices suddenly can face the need to download a new app for banking, navigation, or getting video calls. They press the download button, and a message appears “insufficient space”!
Well, if it’s your case, don’t suffer! You don’t have to buy a new phone in a hurry. Just try to free up space on your Android phone with the following suggestions.
Buy a microSD card
An easy way to get extra storage is by adding a microSD card. Just check if your mobile has a microSD slot to add it. Move your music, videos, and other heavy files there, and leave the phone memory for applications.
Free up space with the built-in Android tool
Your Android phone includes a tool to clean space. Go to “Settings” and pick “Storage”. Tap “Free up space” and select what to delete (temporary files, downloads, idle apps) and finally “Remove items”. This is the built-in Android feature to clean your phone storage by removing junk files and cache. Clear already backed up photos, videos, files, old docs from “Downloads”, etc.
*Be sure you haven’t forgotten something important in Downloads.
Clear cache of apps
Web browsers and other apps save information to boost the load speed. After a time, mobiles could have a massive collection of old files. So clear those files (cache) and free up space on your Android.
Go to “Storage” and see the apps list. Check by tapping every app’s name and see how much space is used by its cache. Then just tap “Clear cache” or “Clear storage” choices.
Clear apps
You can directly remove complete apps if you really don’t use them. Besides taking immense amounts of your storage, they can also compromise your device’s performance by running in the background. If you don’t need them, better delete them. You can do it from the list of apps you have, by tapping the app and then “Uninstall”.
A very good practice, not to run out of space, on your Android is to use the browser instead of apps. Most of the social networks are available through the browser, and other apps have a web-based version. Check them out and save space!
Save your media on the cloud
Android storage can get full of photo and video collections fast. The files you create, plus the ones you download, can be enough to clutter your storage space.
Backup regularly all media files in the cloud and clear them from the mobile to free up space on it. You can backup them manually or by syncing up your device with a personal account of a cloud service. Go to the gallery, then “Settings”, and tap on “Add cloud account”. After that, you can “Backup & sync” and configure how regularly to do it.
Stop automatic downloads on your chat applications
Another source of many media files is communication apps such as WhatsApp or Viber. Configure them not to download automatically all media files you receive. Choose just the important ones. You will save data (money) and space on your phone.
Clear maps from your phone
Navigation is a common need. Don’t keep maps on your Android phone that you just used once or don’t need frequently. Download them again when you need them. Maybe by then, the maps will include some useful updates.
Conclusion
Having your phone’s memory full does not automatically mean the phone does not serve anymore. You can extend its life longer.
One day those tips for cleaning up space on your Android phone won’t be enough, but why should it be today?